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Mansion Historic District

Buildings and structures in Albany, New YorkHistoric districts in Albany County, New YorkHistoric districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)NRHP infobox with nocatNational Register of Historic Places in Albany, New York
Neighborhoods in Albany, New YorkU.S. Route 20
Houses on Grand and Madison streets, Albany, NY
Houses on Grand and Madison streets, Albany, NY

The Mansion Historic District, sometimes referred to as Mansion Hill, is located south of Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York, United States. It takes its name from the nearby New York State Executive Mansion, which overlooks it. It is a 45-acre (18 ha), 16-block area with almost 500 buildings. Many of them are rowhouses and townhouses built in the middle and late 19th century that remain mostly intact today. It was first developed in the early 19th century as a small group of estates for wealthy citizens. Later it was subdivided, becoming the first home for several waves of immigrant groups, most notably Italian Americans. In the mid-20th century it began to decline when the construction of Empire State Plaza cut it off from downtown and adversely impacted the neighborhood. A local neighborhood association was formed during this period and has been credited with helping the Mansion neighborhood recover and become a desirable place to live in the early 21st century. In 1982 it was designated a historic district by the city's Historic Resources Commission and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Mansion Historic District (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Mansion Historic District
Grand Street, City of Albany

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 42.646111111111 ° E -73.756388888889 °
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Grand Street Community Arts

Grand Street 68
12202 City of Albany
New York, United States
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Houses on Grand and Madison streets, Albany, NY
Houses on Grand and Madison streets, Albany, NY
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Albany Free School

The Free School is the oldest independent, inner-city alternative school in the United States. Founded by Mary Leue in 1969 based on the English Summerhill School philosophy, the free school lets students learn at their own pace. It has no grades, tests, or firm schedule: students design their own daily plans for learning. The school is self-governed through a weekly, democratic all-school meeting run by students in Robert's Rules. Students and staff alike receive one equal vote apiece. Unlike Summerhill-style schools, the Free School is a day school that serves predominantly working-class children. Nearly 80 percent of the school is eligible for reduced-price meals in the public schools. About 60 students between the ages of three and fourteen attend, and are staffed by six full-time teachers and a number of volunteers. The school runs on a shoestring budget as a tradeoff for its financial independence and accessibility to low-income students. Tuition is billed on a sliding scale based on what parents can afford. Revenue from rental properties and fundraising supplements tuition income. The Free School started a high school program in 2006 that later spun off as the Harriet Tubman Democratic High School before closing in 2017. Journalists have likened the school's approach to unschooling and homeschooling, and its work to that of prefigurative politics. The Albany Free School is one of the few schools remaining from the 1960s and 1970s free school movement. It inspired the program of the Brooklyn Free School.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Albany, New York)
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Albany, New York)

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic church near the Mansion District in Albany, New York, United States. Built in the period of the 1848-1852, it is the mother church of the Diocese of Albany. In 1976 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has several claims to architectural and ecclesiastical history. Designed by Irish American architect Patrick Keely to accommodate Albany's growing population of Catholic immigrants, it is the second-oldest cathedral in the state, after St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. It is also the third oldest Catholic cathedral in the United States, and the first American Catholic cathedral in the Neo-Gothic architectural style.The interior features the original stained glass windows, imported from England, and award-winning Stations of the Cross statuary. When completed, it was the tallest building in Albany. It has hosted visits by cardinals and leaders of other faiths, including one Archbishop of Canterbury, and the weddings of two Catholic governors' daughters. In 1986 it hosted the first-ever service of forgiveness between Catholics and Jews on Palm Sunday, an event commemorated by a sculpture outside the building. Construction of the cathedral, at the behest of the diocese's first bishop, John McCloskey, took four years. Its south tower took 40, and it was not consecrated until its 50th anniversary in 1902. The construction of Empire State Plaza, the nearby New York state government complex, threatened the cathedral in the 1960s when it required the demolition of most of the surrounding neighborhood. It has been through several renovations in its history, including a $30 million restoration early in the 21st century.

Knickerbocker and Arnink Garages

The Knickerbocker and Arnink Garages were two attached stone buildings located on Hudson Avenue in central Albany, New York, United States. Both were built in the early 20th century; the Knickerbocker garage was added to the Arnink garage 12 years after it was built. In 1980, they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places; nine years later they were both demolished and delisted. At the time, many garages were adapted from stables or carriage houses. The first to be built, the smaller, was instead adapted from an existing commercial building by the owner of a successful Ford dealership in the city for his car-rental and repair service. His superintendent later bought the business from him and had the larger one built in the same style by the same architect. They were among the earliest structures in Albany built specifically in response to the increasing use of the automobile at that time. Their neo-Gothic cast stone facades are an unusual choice of style and material for that time. They may have been inspired by the nearby Delaware and Hudson Railroad office building, a contemporary catalyst for the redevelopment of downtown that is today the system administration building for the State University of New York. One was later converted into a warehouse and used for that purpose until its demolition. That came about as part of a plan for two large office towers proposed for the neighborhood as redevelopment. Nothing has been built on the space since; it is used as part of a parking lot that serves another nearby redevelopment project, the Times Union Center.